Dutch Senate calls to affirm Jewish ties to Temple Mount
This is not the first time that lawmakers in The Hague called on their government to vote with Israel at the UN.
By LAHAV HARKOVDutch Ambassador to Israel Naor Gilon (left) is seen shaking hands with Duth Senate President Jan Anthonie Bruijn.(photo credit: ISRAELI EMBASSY IN THE HAGUE)
The Dutch Senate on Tuesday passed a motion calling for the Netherlands to vote against UN resolutions that use only the Arabic name for the Temple Mount, thus denying Judaism’s connection to its holiest site.The motion, by Sen. Peter Schalk of the Christian SGP faction, asked the government “to vote as much as possible against UN resolutions referring to the Temple Mount using only the Arabic name ‘al-Haram al-Sharif’ and to encourage other European Union countries to do the same.”The Senate approved the motion with 50 in favor and 25 opposed.The vote came after the Netherlands voted in favor of six out of seven annual UN resolutions concerning Israel last week, including “Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem,” which refers to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, only as al-Haram al-Sharif.This is not the first time that lawmakers in The Hague called on their government to vote with Israel at the UN. In 2017, the Dutch parliament called on the government to come out against the disproportionate focus on Israel at UN institutions. That motion was an initiative of Kees van der Staaij, also of SGP.In the ensuing years, there have been numerous parliamentary questions and calls for the government of the Netherlands to act on the motion, but it has not done so.That the Senate, which rarely tables motions on foreign affairs, adopted a motion calling on the government to change its UN votes can be seen as a reprimand to the executive for ignoring a motion from parliament.Ambassador to the Netherlands Naor Gilon applauded the motion, which he said “fights the continuing discrimination towards Israel in the UN.“This is a clear message against attempts by different factors to erase the historic connection of over 3,000 years between the Jewish people and Jerusalem,” Gilon stated.Hague-based Israel advocacy group CIDI welcomed the motion, as well, saying that “the Dutch government should respect [the 2017 motion] and act against disproportionate scheduling of Israel at UN institutions. All members of the UN should receive the same, equal treatment.
“The motion adopted now by the Senate should be a wake-up call for the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs that it has to truly start working on implementing the parliamentary adopted motion [by] van der Staaij,” CIDI’s statement read.
